If a Christian can possibly be saved while conforming to this world, it must only be as if through the fire. Such a limited salvation should be dreaded more than desired. Reader, would you want to leave this world in the darkness of a depressing deathbed and enter heaven like a shipwrecked mariner climbing the rocks of his native country? If so, then be worldly. Run with the greedy, and refuse to go outside the camp bearing the disgrace Christ carried (Hebrews 13:13). But would you like to have a heaven below as well as above? Would you like to “have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18–19)? Do you want to enter into the abundant joy of your Lord? Then “come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things” (2 Corinthians 6:17 NLT). Would you like a full assurance of faith? You cannot get that while you commune with sinners. Do you want to burn with an impassioned love? Your love will be dampened by the downpour of godless society. You cannot become a great Christian—you may be an infant in grace, but you never can become a perfect adult in Christ Jesus—while you yield yourself to the principles and modes of business of the people of the world. It is a bad thing for an heir of heaven to be close friends with the heirs of hell. It has a bad look when a member of the court is too intimate with his king’s enemies. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous: little thorns make great sores, little moths destroy fine clothing, and little frivolities and mischiefs will rob religion of a thousand joys. Professing Christian, when you have too little separation from sinners, you don’t even know what you lose by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength and makes you creep when you ought to run. For your own comfort’s sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you are a Christian, be a Christian—and be a marked and distinct one. -C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening
What do you look like to the world? In its basest sense you are either a believer in Jesus, following in what the Bible teaches, or you are an unbeliever who lives their own way. The first, regardless of how lived, will find themselves in Heaven. The second, regardless of how they lived, will find themselves in Hell.
If a believer is indeed different from the inside out, shouldn't there be a life that reflects that?
In the great revivals of the past, people by the thousands, gave up things in their lives to live for Jesus the way they should have been doing or as new people in Christ. They gave up their vices. In the most clear way to put it they were giving up their attachments to this world. Breaking free from their conformity to it.
A revival can happen at any time. But the one who triggers it isn't any one person or people who announce one. Revival is a result of the work of the Spirit of God, not the will of mankind.
If your life were put on trial and your deeds and thoughts weighed, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? Or would a jury have to deliberate for a long time because the evidence wasn't clear?
You, my friend, my dear reader, whether or not you are not Christian, will indeed give an account of your life, and very soon. Without Christ as your Savior, your verdict is already written: Guilty. With Christ yours is written as well: Not Guilty. For the believer, your works, thoughts and actions for the Kingdom and not for it will be weighed.
How will you fare in that day? How will it be for you? This world is turning against Christianity in a greater scale than in centuries past. Perhaps indeed it is getting to be like the old Roman Empire. That isn't a reason to not live for Jesus the way the Bible says. It isn't a reason to compromise. Our lives are in Christ. If it means we leave this world, then our work is done. This world is perishing. I believe that in a very short while, the Rapture of the Church will occur. 7 years of Judgements will happen. Then the 1,000 year reign of Christ. After that all this we see now and know now will be gone. It is written, it is happening it will be happening.
Make sure that you are right before God today. If you are a Christian, seek a revival in your life with Christ. Start separating yourself from what you have allowed yourself to be entangled with in your life from the world. If you are not a believer, my friend, time is running out. There is still time to change that verdict against you. There's still time to call upon Jesus and be saved.
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